6. The overall repair of the Palace Museum is not an ordinary construction job, but a cultural inheritance project requiring great intelligence.

A broken ancient bronze ware. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The broken bronze ware was restored to its original appearance. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Take the repair of Juanqinzhai in Qianlong Garden for example. There is a magnificent large painting at the top of a drama stage which needs repair. Employees found that it was pasted up on a kind of special paper material made with some grass from a mountainous area in Anhui province.

Restoration experts even went to Anhui and asked local craftsmen for help, through repeated research and practice, the special material was finally manufactured and transported to the Palace Museum. Now the restoration experts will know the formula when it needs to be repaired again.

The repair of Juanqinzhai took seven years and was accompanied by great deal of research and the knowledge of traditional skills.